Native Hawaiians are fighting off an invasion of astronomers

April 15, 2015 12:30 PM

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If completed, the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), to be built atop Hawaii’s dormant Mauna Kea volcano, will be one of the largest and most powerful telescopes in the world. According to the project’s organizers, the TMT “will enable astronomers to study objects in our own solar system and stars throughout our Milky Way and its neighboring galaxies, and forming galaxies at the very edge of the observable universe, near the beginning of time.”

It will be quite the scientific feat, and undoubtedly a boon to astronomical institutions the world over. The governments of the United States, China, Japan, India, and Canada have all contributed funds in hopes of eventually utilizing research undertaken at the TMT observatory, which is affiliated ...